Public art in Greater Lafayette has tended to be on the safe side. That's probably the case everywhere, but it's worth noting just the same.

Sure, both cities started freeing up control of public art in small steps, including blackboard projects that provided a canvas, handed out chalk and allowed anyone to jot down their greatest fear or offer a bucket list item of the opening line, "Before I die …"

But this summer, Lafayette let go of the reins in a way that had some skeptics predicting potential controversy. And this week finally delivered it.

The pop-up "small spaces: Lafayette" project has been putting graffiti-styled pieces on the walls of downtown buildings for the past month or so. While paid for and sponsored by the city, the subjects and placement of "small spaces: Lafayette" installments has been random, based on the direction of curator Zach Medler (and based on permission from building owners to use the walls).

The idea here was to let artists really take control without micromanaging of fussy, bureaucratic pre-approval. It's part of the loosening up recommended by Greater Lafayette's Community of Choice report from 2012.

That effort at edginess didn't make a new piece installed on the side of a restaurant and facing the Lafayette Police Department's parking lot go down well with police. The work, depicting the face of a police officer in riot gear, was apparently inspired by recent events in Ferguson, Missouri. That sort of statement, particularly its placement, was understandably taken as a pointed jab at police work in general.

By Tuesday, the city had asked artists to cover it, which they did in a gauzy red spray paint — an effect that made the piece more menacing, perhaps closer to the artist's intent. The new paint job came with an artist's promise for a new piece that might be just as pointed.

Could the city and police have held their tongues and allowed this edgier frontier, as critical as it might be, play out? Probably so. Could artists have been more judicious about where that particular piece went up? Again, probably so. To that point, it would have been interesting to see how long pieces might have lasted if they had depicted ambulance chasers across from a law firm, a clogged artery across from a pub food restaurant or a mockery of the cross across from a downtown church.

But city officials, even the ones a bit squeamish going into this project, acknowledged there might be some bumps in this new public art road. Having hit one, here's hoping the city doesn't retreat into the realm of only the absolutely safe.